Development of the Addiction Therapist Rating Scale (ATRS)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The development of the Addiction Therapist Rating Scale (ATRS): a rating scale for evaluating the delivery of evidence based treatments used in routine practice for alcohol and illicit drug use problems.
IRAS ID
165130
Contact name
Helen F. Crosby
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
R 2014/02, Alcohol Research UK grant; SSA PhD studentship 2014 Helen Crosby, Society for the Study of Addiction
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
Methods of evaluating practice in the addiction field have typically been designed to measure treatment fidelity in research trials (e.g. Carroll et al. 2000, Moyers et al. 2005, & Martino et al. 2008). These determine the extent to which treatments are delivered according to the research protocol or manual and are important for supporting claims for treatment effectiveness. Treatments shown to be effective in research trials also need to be delivered with fidelity in routine practice. Successful implementation, therefore, requires a measure to monitor delivery in routine practice (Schoenwald & Garland 2013). The Addiction Therapist Rating Scale (ATRS) aims to address this by providing a well validated scale that applies to cognitive behavioural and network therapies for alcohol and illicit drug use problems.
The project comprises of three studies: Study 1 will develop the scale. Study 2 will validate the scale by investigating its psychometric properties. This will involve using recordings from routine practice data and re-examining data derived in studies using three different treatment protocols (Tober et al. 2008, Watson et al. 2013a, Watson et al. 2013b). Study 3 will explore implementation of the scale in routine practice; this will be divided into two stages: Stage 1 will pilot the scale with a clinical team at a specialist addiction unit, and Stage 2 will be on a larger scale, implementing the scale with other clinical teams/services. The final version of the ATRS will provide a useful tool for training and supervision, which has the potential to impact on therapist competence and patient outcomes.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/YH/0037
Date of REC Opinion
17 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion